Chocolate the orangutan's long road to freedom – in pictures

Chocolate the orangutan's long road to freedom – in pictures

When Chocolate was rescued from poachers in Indonesia’s peat forests as a baby, he was underweight and afraid. Four years later he is ready to be returned to the wild. Despite his story of hope, Sumatra’s orangutans remain under threat

Chocolate is a critically endangered Sumatran orangutan. Here he looks through the bars of his holding cage moments before being finally released back into the wild, but it’s been a long journey out of captivity, through rehabilitation, to freedom.

Chocolate was discovered as a baby, by members of WildLife Asia, being illegally held by wildlife traders in a village on the outskirts of the Tripa peat forest, Aceh. The traders told them: ‘We identify the mothers with babies, then cut down the trees around them, leaving them with nowhere to run. Then we beat the mother close to death until she falls to the ground. Only when she is unconscious can we prise the infant from her grasp.’ Baby orangutans fetch up to 2m Rupiah, normally sold to Chinese businessmen.

When Chocolate was first discovered he was underweight and afraid. Patches of his hair were missing from sleeping on hard, cold surfaces. Although he was already damaged by his ordeal, Chocolate was lucky. He wasn’t sold but was rescued in a joint operation between the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program (SOCP), the NGO Yayasan Ekosistem Lestari (foundation for a sustainable ecosystem), the Nature and Natural Resource Conservation Agency of Indonesia (BKSDA), and the police.

According to Dr Ian Singelton of SOCP, the Tripa peat forest is home to the highest population density of orangutan on Earth, but numbers are under serious threat from deforestation, as well as poaching. Here local police officers hold Chocolate after his rescue and before his 12-hour journey to the quarantine centre outside of Medan.

Singleton comforts Chocolate moments before he’s released. ‘I’m going to miss this little guy,’ he confides. ‘I’m not sure people really understand what it’s like to rescue, rehabilitate, and finally release an orangutan. It’s very emotionally draining. This little guy’s lost everything, but hopefully it’s a new start for him.’